Gods and Generals Quotes

“And so, pointing fingers become pointing guns, because nobody listens to fingers.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“Major, I do not know why God does the things He does, but I believe you have the same duty to God as you have always had: to follow the right path, to live your life with a clear conscience.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“To his left he saw the other regiments, men from New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan. Men like these, he thought, just farmers and shopkeepers, and now we are soldiers, and now we are about to die.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“The heavy round face was looking at him, the hard look of a man who had also understood, who had seen all the stupidity, who knew, after all, that the gold stars were often mindless decoration, that the army was led not by symbols, but by the fallible egos and blind fantasies of men.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“Across the river he could see the burnt and crushed buildings of Fredericksburg, the debris piled along the streets, the scattered ruins of people's lives, lives that were changed forever. His men had done that. Not all of it, of course. The whole corps had seemed to go insane, had turned the town into some kind of violent party, a furious storm that blew out of control, and he could not stop it. The commanders had ordered the provost guards at the bridges to let no goods leave the town, nothing could be carried across the bridges, and so what the men could not keep, what they could not steal, they had just destroyed. And now, he thought, the people will return, trying to rescue some fragile piece of home, and they will find this...and they will learn something new about war, more than the quiet nightmare of leaving your home behind. They will learn that something happens to men, men who have felt no satisfaction, who have absorbed and digested defeat after bloody stupid defeat, men who up to now have done mostly what they were told to do. And when those men begin to understand that it is not anything in them, no great weakness or inferiority, but that it is the leaders, the generals and politicians who tell them what to do, that the fault is there, after a while they will stop listening. Then the beast, the collective anger, battered and bloodied, will strike out, will respond to the unending sights of horror, the deaths of friends and brothers, and it will not be fair or reasonable or just, since there is no intelligence in the beast. They will strike out at whatever presents itself, and here it was the harmless and innocent lives of the people of Fredericksburg.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“I always had the faith that this country would elect those who knew best, who could follow the best course through any situation.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“I always have felt that we are a nation that is very different . . . unique, perhaps. We were founded by thinking men, brilliant men, men who designed a system where conflicts were resolved in debate, where the decision of the majority would prevail. These men had confidence in that majority, they had faith that the design of the system would, by definition, ensure that reasonable men would reach reasonable conclusions, and so we would govern ourselves, all of us, by this new type of system, a system where our conflicts and differences would be resolved by civilized means. There is no other system like this, anywhere.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“so what the men could not keep”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“It is well this is so terrible,” he said. “We should grow too fond of it.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“And so”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“He began to think of history”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“proclaiming their opinions with the mindless flourish of those who share no responsibility for the consequences of their grand ideas.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“Those who lead the rebellion are trying to prove a point … a point that we are not one nation, that we are a group of separate countries, we are Maine, and Vermont, and Virginia and Georgia and Texas and New York … and that if any one of us disagrees with the policies of the Federal government, we have the right to erase whatever binds us together, disregard the existence—or the importance—of the Union.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals: A Novel of the Civil War

“Saw groups of men, some huddled in intense conversation, others waving big cigars, broad-chested men with loud voices, proclaiming their opinions with the mindless flourish of those who share no responsibility for the consequences of their grand ideas.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“of us, by this new type of system, a system where our conflicts and differences would be resolved by civilized means. There is no other system like this, anywhere. And if this war is lost . . . if the rebellion is successful, it is possible there may never be another.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“We got a duty . . . we all got the same duty, all of us, Major.” Armistead”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“A condition of war’ exists.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“Is that not what a commander must do, earn respect, give them discipline and . . . love them?”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals

“General Lee, if it will please God, we will kill them all.”
― Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals